Pat LaRue had a knack for drawing people in with her warm personality — and her legendary hugs.

“She loved everybody,” son Tim LaRue says.

“Even strangers — she always wanted hugs from everyone,” daughter Laurie Lyss adds.

Born Aileen Patricia Charlotte Williams, Pat became known as mom, auntie and grandma to droves of friends beyond her large, close-knit family. She died in July at the age of 93.

Pat and her eight siblings grew up during the Depression in a home built by their father, who worked as a mason. The quaint St. Boniface residence remains in the family and has been the site of sprawling Williams clan gatherings for generations, with the biggest annual parties falling on St. Patrick’s Day and New Year’s Eve.

Pat met her husband Charles Edward (Ted) LaRue at a friend’s house

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